Friday, September 30, 2011

The man who approached tellers
at the Eastern Bank in South Boston on Aug. 25 eventually fled
empty-handed, but only after one teller had refused his order for "all
your money" (she told him she was "closed") and another had scolded him
for breaking into the front of the adjacent line and for not removing
his hoodie. [Boston Globe, 8-27-2011]

Explanation:
Part of Mars is defrosting.
Around the
South Pole of
Mars, toward the end of every Martian summer, the warm weather causes a
section of the vast carbon-dioxide ice cap to evaporate.
Pits begin to
appear and expand where the carbon dioxide dry
ice sublimates directly into gas.
These ice sheet pits may appear to be lined with gold, but the precise composition of the dust that highlights the pit
walls actually remains unknown.
The circular depressions toward the image center measure about 60 meters across.
The HiRISE camera aboard the Mars-orbiting
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the
above image in late July.
In the next few months, as Mars continues its
journey around the
Sun, colder seasons will prevail, and the thin air will turn chilly enough not only to stop the
defrosting but once again freeze out more layers of
solid carbon dioxide.

Six times the candy Goes six times as far Six times the flavor In a Bit-O-Honey BarChicago has long held a reputation as the candy capitol of the United States. And, in 1924, the Schutter-Johnson Company launched a unique new chew to the windy city, one that would delight children and dentists alike. Christened as the Bit-O-Honey, it was guaranteed to give a kid’s jaw muscles a workout like no other. (click below to read more)

1927:In the New York Yankees' second-to-last game of the season, Babe Ruth sets the MLB
record for most home runs in a single season, hitting his 60th homer
off a pitch by Tom Zachary of the Washington Senators. The Babe's record
will stand until Roger Maris breaks it in 1961.

1846: Dentist William Morton uses inhaled ether as an anesthetic,
painlessly extracting a tooth from local merchant Eben Frost at his
Boston dental office. Morton will give the first public demonstration of
the anesthetic at Massachusetts General Hospital the following month.

1938: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French
Prime Minister Édouard Daladier sign the Munich Pact with Nazi leader
Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, appeasing Hitler's
demands for German annexation of the Sudetenland region of
Czechoslovakia. Returning home to England later that day, Chamberlain
proclaims that the agreement has secured "peace in our time."

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Brad Winn, Lewis & Clark Interpretative Site superintendent, presents a program about the leadership skills of the aforementioned explorers and how you can use those skills in managing your business. For additional informationLINK HERE

Clearly taking his cues from Pixar's Up or the lesser known Danny Deckchair, American adventurer Jonathan Trappe found a unique way to cross the Alps. Last week, the 38-year old from North Carolina, strapped 54 helium balloons to a chair, took flight, and soared high above the iconic European mountain range. (click below to read and see more)

Gifts can boost worker productivity on a scale that cash can't match, a study shows.

In 2007 and
2010, researchers recruited subjects for three hours' work, cataloging
books at a university economics department for €12 ($16.30) an hour.
Before workers started, some were told they'd get an extra €7—a random
bonus. Others got a thermos, also worth about €7, wrapped as a gift.

The researchers measured productivity
by counting characters in the workers' database entries. Workers who got
the gift were 25% more productive than a control group who got nothing,
while the "cash" group's productivity boost was statistically
insignificant. The beneficial effect on productivity persisted when
subjects were told the thermos's value, and even when they could choose
to take the thermos or cash. (Strikingly, more than 90% picked cash).

"The Currency of Reciprocity—Gift Exchange in the
Workplace," Sebastian Kube, Michel André Maréchal and Clemens Puppe,
American Economic Review (forthcoming)

Image via WikipediaBeatles Said a Fast Hello, Goodbye but a Tiny Town Won't Let It BeA Fleeting Stopover in Walnut Ridge, Ark., Forty-Seven Years Ago Launches a Festival

WALNUT RIDGE, Ark.—It was more than a day in the life for folks in this sleepy southern farm town.Forty-seven years ago, at the height of Beatlemania, three teenagers here in the Lawrence County seat in northeast Arkansas ventured out one quiet Friday night to investigate reports that a large plane was mysteriously buzzing over a dusty World War II-era airstrip.They came back with a fantastic story: It was the Beatles. They'd just hung out. (click below to read more)

Daniel Sturgeon knew he’d be a Rotarian someday. He just imagined a
day far off in the future, not one a few days shy of his 30th birthday.
But since 2007, this former Rotary Peace Fellow has been a member of two Rotary clubs. (click below to read more)

1542:Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese navigator sailing
for Spain, becomes the first European explorer to reach California when
he arrives in present-day San Diego Bay, in search of a legendary water
route across the North American continent.

1928: Alexander Fleming observes the antibacterial properties
of a fungus growing in petri dishes at St. Mary's Hospital in London.
That fungus will be the source of penicillin, one of the most important antibiotics in modern medicine.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

As someone who's been on the frontlines of the branding wars, I've spent countless hours with CEOs, advertising executives and marketing mavens at some of the biggest companies in the world. I've seen—and, honestly, been disturbed by—the full range of psychological tricks and schemes that some companies use to prey on our most deeply rooted fears, dreams and desires in order to persuade us to buy their brands and products. (click below to read more)

The Rotary Peace Centers program provided Alejandra Rueda Zarate, of
Bogota, Colombia, with skills that she’s now using to help poor
villagers in her nation’s countryside.

"Thanks to the program, I complemented my years of work experience
with international knowledge and learning, allowing me to start my own
initiative on rural development and poverty alleviation," says Zarate, a
2010 graduate of the Rotary Peace Center at the University of
California, Berkeley, who had worked in the agricultural industry before
her fellowship. "The strategic platform brings capacity building to
peasants in the countryside, and has had significant results for
conflict alleviation in Colombia."(click below to read more)

1938:Queen Elizabeth, queen consort of King George VI of the United Kingdom, christens the RMS Queen Elizabeth, a 314-meter-long
ocean liner named in her honor, at the ship's launch in Glasgow,
Scotland. At the time of the launch, the Cunard Line vessel is the
largest passenger liner ever built.

1540: Pope Paul III officially charters the Society of Jesus,
founded by Spanish priest Ignatius de Loyola six years earlier. The
Jesuit order will play a crucial role in the Roman Catholic
Counter-Reformation and missionary work around the world.

1998: St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire hits his
70th home run of the year in the last game of the Cardinals' season, at
home against the Montreal Expos. McGwire sets a new Major League Baseball
record for most homers in a single season, winning a de facto
competition with Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs, who finishes the season
with a respectable 66 home runs. Earlier in the month, both men broke
Roger Maris' record of 61 single-season home runs, which had stood for
37 years. Three years later, San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry
Bonds will break McGwire's record with 73 home runs in the 2001 season.

New Generation of Global Jet-Setters20-Somethings Rack Up Frequent-Flier Miles to Take Far-Flung Journeys; Flying to Fiji for Lunch

When class is out, most college-age students flock to the beach or schlep home to mom and dad. But 18-year-old Andy Nguyen jets around the world: London, Frankfurt, Bangkok, Tokyo, Ho Chi Minh City. (click below to read more)

1991:Four men and four women enter Biosphere 2, a self-contained,
life-supporting dome mimicking the ecosystems of the Earth, in Oracle,
Ariz. They will remain in the sealed dome for two years, growing crops
and studying the ecology of the biosphere, which includes a miniature
rainforest, desert, ocean and savannah.

1789:Thomas Jefferson,
then serving as ambassador to France, is appointed by President George
Washington as the first U.S. secretary of state. John Jay is confirmed
as chief justice of the United States on the same day.